Canada migration window open

On July 1 immigrant intake will be re-opened by Canada

Get your paper work done and sit in front of your computer on July 1. The intake of skilled workers applications will be re-opened.

Citizenship & Immigration Canada (CIC) is expected to reopen the intake of Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) applications after the Canada Day holiday, which is on July 1, notes Deepak Kohli, a regulated immigration consultant and president of Transcend Consultants to this website.

“Popularly referred to as the 'points system', the FSW programme is the most popular immigration program, as it selects qualified skilled applicants from across the world based on factors like their education, work experience, language proficiency, etc,” he explains.

“Thus, the selection differs from programmes that require support from either blood relatives (family sponsorship) or job offer letter from a Canadian business.”

However, the FSW programme is by many applicants considered hard to get into, due to the limitations implied by the changes that were introduced in 2008.

“The intake of FSW applications has been limited to a few occupations, tied to past work experience of the applicant. Further restrictions include capping the number of applications each year,” says Deepak.

“For the year starting in July 2011, CIC accepted only 500 applications for each occupation on the list and overall 10,000 applications.

“While some occupations reached their cap as early as July last year, many others were open till April-May of this year, when the overall cap was reached.”

“For some occupations you need to be really fast,” recalls also Kim Krisko, a Canadian lawyer and immigration consultant at Krisko & Associates in Dubai. Last year there were categories of which the caps were reached within a day.”

In order not to miss the opportunity that only reopens once a year, it is therefore, wise to keep a close eye on the re-opening this year, and not to postpone the application any later than on July 1 itself.

Furthermore, the programme might not look completely the same as last years’.

“It is unknown at this time, if CIC will make any changes. If there are no changes, many aspiring immigrants seem to be prepared to file their applications in July, and the caps are expected to be filled quickly,” says Deepak.

“On the other hand, the potential changes include a new occupations list or a revision in cap numbers, and the criteria of the programme might be adapted. Such changes cannot be completely ruled out, and in fact are highly likely.”